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She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did.

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

Quick review

Geek Girl is the first book in the series of the same name. Narrated by Harriet Manners, it tells the story of Harriet’s fall into the fashion world, a world she’s never been interested in by dives deeper into so she can escape her old one. It is a fun, easy and actually pretty inspirational book for primarily teenage girls. I thoroughly recommend this book to any girl/woman who feels like a polar bear in a tropical jungle, not sure how to fit in with the lemurs and parrots.

As I’ve already said, Geek Girl is a lot of fun. It’s 378 pages, but it goes by fast, with short chapters to make you feel accomplished each time you finish one. The story is narrated in first person by Harriet, which gives you direct access to her inner thoughts. This is what made the story so good for me; reading Harriet’s thoughts was like reading my own from when I was her age. In fact, I still have the same internal voice now, further proof that there is no such thing as ‘growing up’ (just hiding your inner child better). I’m pretty sure Holly Smales is a mindreader.

Geek Girl starts off on the day Harriet’s life changes. Like me, she is a “geek”; she isn’t interested in fashion, but she does know a lot about almost everything else. As part of a bargain with her best friend Nat, Harriet boards a bus to a fashion exhibition for a school trip. (Do they seriously have field trips to such things in the UK?) Nat has been obsessed with fashion and becoming a model since she was a kiddywink, and she is determined to get spotted. However, it’s Harriet who manages to catch someone’s eye (and not who you think!!!). Despite having no interest and no confidence in herself, Harriet decides to give the whole modelling thing a try, and what follows is an account of the accumulated messes she makes.

What sits at heart of this book is Harriet’s dissatisfaction with herself and her life. Her aptitude at school sets her apart from her peers, and only two people at school show any (positive) interest in her. The first is her BFF since the age of 5, Nat. The other is Toby, a fellow intellectual who shows maybe a tad too much interest in Harriet. As often happens in schools in the Western world, Harriet’s propensity to know the answers to everything leads to bullying and social ostracisation, particularly from the social queen bee, Alexa. Harriet doesn’t feel like she fits in, and she takes a chance on modelling, hoping that she can transform herself into someone more likeable and less awkward.

I’m so tired of it all. I’m tired of not fitting in; of being left out; of being hated. I’m tired of having everything I am ripped up and strewn around the room the way a puppy wrecks an abandoned toilet roll. I’m tired of never doing anything right; of constantly being humiliated; of feeling like I’m just not good enough, no matter what I do. I’m tired of feeling like this. And most of all, I’m tired of being a polar bear, wandering around the rainforest on my own.

As someone who is still socially awkward to this day and actually misses school, I could absolutely relate to Harriet’s experience. I used to daydream about waking up one morning, thinner, prettier and more popular. I think that’s one of the reasons I love fantasy novels so much, particularly ones involving the fae. I still wish I could be a faerie! If I had been offered a chance to model, I probably would have taken it, too. Especially if it meant a free makeover, free travelling and the chance to jump around with a handsome male model! I’ll take the kitten heels, though, thanks.

The problem is that all the makeovers and free clothes in the world won’t change who you are. You will always be you, and there will always be people who love you or hate you for who you are. This is the lesson Harriet has to learn the hard way. And it only takes nearly losing everything important to her and appearing on live TV for her to realise that she is who she is, and what’s wrong with that? Inspiration, right there.

I just have one qualm with the book, and that is Toby. Why is everyone so chill about him being a stalker? He even openly admits to being a stalker, with his special hideaway and notes on Harriet’s behaviour. Adults have even noticed him stalking Harriet. The only thing creepier than Toby and his stalker ways is that no one seems to care that he’s spending his free time following some girl around. This is not normal, folks!

I can’t be too hard on Toby, though, since he helped Harriet along the road to self-acceptance. Take this little gem from page 324, shared “Yoda-like” after Harriet shares her feelings about being a polar bear lost in a rainforest:

“We’re awesome, Harriet. We’ve got big paws so we can catch tropical fish out of rivers. And as we’re genetically related to European brown bears, I think with a bit of practice we could climb trees too. … Just enjoy being a polar bear. Appreciate the size of our paws. Plus, we’re deceptively fluffy and cute.”

As this is a comedy told from the perspective of a 15-year-old, don’t expect incredibly deep and complex characters. All of the characters have been stripped down to their most prominent traits, as perceived by Harriet. Her father and stepmother are polar opposites; one is a logical, organised lawyer, and the other is an erratic, spontaneous advertising something-or-the-other. Basically the brains and the overgrown baby. Harriet’s agent is the flamboyant, adorable Wilbur (bur, not iam), who talks in pet names. I’m half-tempted to go around calling people Chocolumps and Baby-baby Pandas. Alexa is just cruel, playing the mean girl to perfection. They are the perfect cast of characters to surround Harriet and help her develop.

Overall, I’m so glad I picked upGeek Girl. I giggled, I sighed, I 100% related. There is a lot of wisdom wrapped up in this funny, maybe even silly, novel. A spoon full of sugar does help the medicine go down, after all.

One response to “Review: Geek Girl by Holly Smale”

[…] few books by YALC authors already, like Bone Season and Mime Order by Samantha Shannon, as well as Geek Girl by Holly Smale. However, there are a lot of authors attending whose books I haven’t read, […]

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